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UNION DOCUMENT. 



OONTENTS.— Addres-s of the Union Members of the Legislature to the 
People of the State of New York. Soldicr.s' Voting Bill. Opinion ®f 
Attorney General Dickinson. Report of the majority of the Committee of 
the Senate on Governor Seymour '.s Message on the Soldiers' Bill. Yoice 
of the Press. Speech of Hon. D. S. Dickinson at Albany. 



ADDRESS 

<M the Vnlon members orttae lieglslatare. 

To the Eloctora of the State of Nc70 York: 
The nndursigncd membei'S of the Republi- 
aan Union party in the Legislature of 1863, 
in pnrsnanoe of custom submit to you the 
following reflections : 

When about one year ago you were ad- 
' flressed in this manner, it was not supposed 
■fey many who concurred in that address that 
another year of nnonded war would pass, but 
•early all indulged what seemed the well 
founded hope, that the arms of the Federal 
Grovernment would boon triumph every- 
TThere, and that military resistance to tlie 
laws and to tlie Coustitutioa of the Union 
'would have been overcome. But that hope 
^as proved fallacious, and though progress 
has upon the whole been made in restonug 
Ae ascendency of the National authority, an 
armed and powerful rebellion still exists and 
the Government is still called to groat exer- 
tions to prevent that rebellion from reaching 
a snooessful revolution. An overruling Provi- 
dence has so ordered ;t that iuimcnso means 
put in active exercise have not resulted in the 
sccorapliahment of corresponding ends, and 
the people ot this State and of every State 
sre still and again called to abide in their loy- 
alty to the Governmont and to do and to en- 
dure for the maintenance and preservation of 
ikhe natiftuality of their choice and of their 
affections. 

Wo have no douht but that the heart of 
people is loyal. We have no doubt but that 
the heart of llio people is fixed, unalterably 
and unfalteringly lised, upon the preservation 
of the Union, upon the maintenance of the 
Fedtral Constitution and t!ie enforcement of 
the Federal laws. We have no doubt but 
that ths firm, unswerving purpose of the peo- 



ple is, that .all forcible resistance to the au- 
thority of the Government is to bo put down 
by the strong hand, by persistent, unyielding 
force, at any necessary^ expenditure of uiea 
and means. 

mK UNION. 

We have no doubt but that the calm reflec- 
tion of the people has led to this, the cmly 
logical conclusion, that unrepressed insurrec- 
tion is but incipient anarchy, and that to (S- 
low the present rebellion to reaoli success \a 
but to sever the bands of organized society, 
and to reduce the States and the peopl-e of 
tiiem, to a weltering chaos from which recon- 
struction can only come by the strong and 
mastering hand of a military despotism. — 
Apart from any consideration of a liigh and 
noble patriotism, apart from any considera- 
tions of an exalted regard and love for ab- 
strjxct right and conscientious adherence to 
established governments, true'public and in- 
dividual economy, and wise expediency, 
thougli found upon a lower plane of motive, 
imperatively demand that there should bejio 
steps backward in the violent efforts of the 
loyal people gof the North" tojforce'back to 
obedience the disloyal people of the South. — 
Wo will not not listen to any suggestion of 
separation, and united there is no security for 
the future, save in a submission extorted from 
admitted weakness confessedly overcome by 
mastering power. To have hereafter a peace- 
ful Unoin, calm and self-poised in the ponder- 
ous might of its own great power, it must 
now be seen and felt of all men, that whosoever 
shall fall upon this rock he shall be dashed 
in pieces, and that upon whomsoever it shall 
fall he shall be ground to powder. Let it once 
be admitted or demoustrateil that the Federal 
Union exists but by the sufl'erance of any of 
its component parts, that it has not the inhe- 



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rent power to prc-servo itself from internal 
convulsion, and any day mav see sectional 
interest demandins by force accordance with 
its claims, or, that denied, a fraction of the 
Nation. So, we assert, that a wise expedi- 
ency, a[iart from higher considerations, de- 
mands that the present contest, shall not close 
and leave the prohlem unsolved of the power 
of self defence in the Federal Oovernnient. — 
If it lie true that the Federal Union can pro- 
tect itself against intestine treason, however 
long planned, and however powerful and for- 
midable in its outburst, let that fact be so 
palpably shown and demonstrated as that 
treason shall never again dare raise its hideons 
head. If it be the lamentable fact tfaat the 
Federal Union is comneteig; only for fair 
skies and smootk seas, let that fact bo so cen- 
clusively settled as that the American People 
shall no longer lean «poa a broken reed, but 
may in the plenitude of their experience look 
about them for some form of government that 
shall be strong enough to sustain itself — 
strong enough to repress insurrection within 
and to repel invasion w itiiout. 

But we do not apprehend the latter alter- 
native. We believe that the wisdom of the 
fathers was not tasked in vain. We believe 
that the American Union was no abortive 
birth. We believe that the Government 
whi'ch the sages of the past, fresh from the 
necessities of the revolution, founded, was 
foundationed deep down below the upheavings 
of domestic discord, and reared high and 
strong above the shocks of wicked treason, 
with inherent powers of self protection and 
self preservation suflicient for any emergency 
that has yet arisen or that will arise in the 
course of time. If the^people but lovo their 
Government, the Government has a sure 
foundation in the love of the people. If the 
people but love their Government with alove 
fervent enough to endure trial and to sutler 
privation, the. Government is well butlressed 
in the love of the people. We believe that, 
diffused through tlie mass of the jjeople in 
the loyal States, t'^ere exists this lovo for the 
Government, fervent, patient, enduring, that 
will undergo privation rather than that the 
institutions of the country shall crumble and 
our nationallity bo blotted out. 

THB OLAMOItS AOAIN.ST THE AD.MIN'ISTIiATION. 

Why then, it may bo asked, believing this, 
why then this iteration 1 Electors of the 
State of New York, though the ])ulse of the 
people beats aright, there are those among 
ns whose ends are selfish and whose means 
are unscrupulous, who would sacrifice all 
public good to private advancement, and 
postpone ever the salvation of the Nation to 
the glorification of self. We trust that they 
are not many ; but we know that they are 
bold and daring, and that in the refluxes of 
public opinion they seize the opportunity to 



cast abroad their carping cavils and to sow 
distrust of the future and doubt of the pow- 
ers that be. In our position hero at the 
political centre of the State, we have had 
frequent opportunity to meet them and to 
hear their sophisms and their jesuitisal 
teachings. With professions of loyalty to 
the Government they carp at and find fault 
with the National Administration. Though 
we adtnit the logical distinction between t^ie 
Government and the corps of men who are 
the exponents of the Government to the 
people and the world; though we admit that 
I the Administration is one thing and Govern- 
1 ment is another, that the Government is the 
people itself, and the Administration is but 
the set of men which the people has put in 
I the position of exercising the jiowers erf 
j Government, we mirst still maintain that 
in times like these blind, and indiscriminate, 
and virulent censure of the acts of the Ad- 
ministration reaches beyond the individual 
exponent of Government, and goes far to 
I weaken the faith in the Government itsel?, 
' encourages open rebellion in its organized 
j efforts, and provokes secret sympathy 
^ with rebellion to become ope; treason. — 
I It must bo admitted that, with treason 
! as rampant as that which is now in arm- 
ed array against the legitimate authority, aad 
with that authority so dependent upoa 
tke united and hearty support of all who re- 
main loyal, anything which operates to beget 
distrust, to distil doubt, to create desponden- 
cy, to weaken exertion, to loosen united ef- 
fort, is an aid to rebellion, is a harm to legiti- 
1 mate authority. What shall we say then of 
j those who in these times, when the Govern- 
I ment is in its fiery trial, when the men who 
I administer it are plunged in anxieties, and 
i cares, and labors, seize upon every lapse, 
magnify every mistake, enlarge every omis- 
sion, and in all manners and upon all occa- 
sions use their powers to depreciate the Adj 
ministration, when Iho direct consecpience of 
success in their endeavors is to discredit tha 
Government and thus to confuse and disheart- 
en the petrple? Yet 'these Same men assert 
that this war must be carried on in a consti- 
tutional manner. If carried on in a consti- 
tutional manner, by whom then shall it be 
carried on but by the men who under the 
Constitution and in the method of the Con- 
stitution have been placed in the administra- 
tion of affiiirs? And yet the endeavor of 
these cavillers is to degrade the legitimate 
administration of affairs in popular estima- 
tion which can have no other result than by 
lessening the coniidonceof the people in their 
servants, cause a witholding of the counten- 
ance and suppoit ef the people to the Gov- 
ernment, and so tend to fetter and impede 
the Government in its endeavors to assert 
and re-establish its supremacy. For we all 



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know, from tho experience of the last two 
years, how mncli tlie Governraent, being of 
tlie people, is coinpellecl to rely upon the 
voluntary uncompelled aiil of the people. — 
This aid has come cheerfully, for tlie mind of 
the people has run parallel with Ihe efforts of) 
the Government. But once disturb that 
mind, check that impulse, and throw the [ 
Government back in its necessities upon 
what it can f»rce, and much is done to ham- 
per and frustrate. I 
We make no specifications of persons or of 
part}' as obnoxiou.s to this charge. We know 
and the people know that .such persons c.^ist, ! 
and we know and tho people know that they | 
find and have congenial party affiliations. 
And it is for us and for the people to mark 
and to condemn those who, in times like 
these, which require the united and like- 
directed efforts of every citizen, are stopping 
by the way to cavil at measures, and to de- 
noun*ce policy, while tho great end sought 
for, looming high and grand above all mea- 
sures, and above any policy, is obscured and 
forgotten. We shall not forget such men, 
wherever their present party companionship 
may be, nor whatever afiiliations they make 
in the luture. We trust that the people will 
not forget them, and that they will not forget 
to condemn them. 

THE I'OLICT OF THE GOVERNMENT. 

The main topic upon which this clamor 
against the administration has been founded, 
is that ol the policy of tho administration. 
Not content with taking the President at 
his own word, and believing his object to be 
the repression of the rebellion and the resto- 
ration of all the powers and authority of the 1 
Government under the Constitution, these 
cavillers have chosen to single out certain ; 
measures of the Administration and to de- 
signate them as tho end and then to denounce 
the policy of the Administration in seeking i 
such an end. They have fanned what sparks 
of discontent they have found among the , 
people, until from the heat of their exertions 
they fancied they perceived a flame, and then i 
have gravely announced to the public that : 
tliere would have been no discontent, that 
the people would have been united, hopeful 
and earnest if the Administiation had not I 
changed its policy. And it is claimed that ! 
this change of policy is this : that instead of 
seeking tho repression of the rebellion and a 1 
re-establishment of national authority as a . 
prime and chief end, that has been abandoned : 
and the abolition of slavery is sought as the ', 
prime and chief end, and all else is to be sub- 
servient to that or in the cant phrase that it 
'Hs sought to (iboUtionize tliewar." No other 
warrant is found or professed to be found for 
this, save the Proclamation of the President, 
dated the 1st day of -January, 1863. This 
proclamation ought not, by all fair rulas of 



interpretation, to be read save in connection 
with the other proclamation of the President, 
dated '22d Sept., 1803, of which it is a con- 
tinuation, and to which it especially refers. 
In the proclamation of the 22d of Sept., 1862, 
the President says ; "1 do hereby proclaim 
and declare that hereafter as hereto/ore, the 
war will be prosecuted _/<)?• the ohject ofprae- 
tiralhj restorinf/ the constitutional relation 
between the United States and the people 
thereof, in which States that relation is er 
may be suspended or disturbed." On the 
first day of January, 1863, comes the second 
proclamation of the President, commencing: 
"Whereas, on the '22d day of Sept., 1862, a 
proclamation was issued, * * * * now, 
therefore, &o.," thus making one dependent 
upon the other and having one purpose pro- 
longed through both of them. But the pro- 
clamation of tho 1st Jan. 1800, is justifiable 
of itself, and by itself, without help from any 
other paper. Its oljjsct is but the object 
which is prominent in the mind of the Presi- 
dent and of every other loyal man in the na- 
tion, and that ohject is the speedy and lasting 
suppression of the rebellion. That object Ss 
we have hereinbefore shown, is only to be 
attained by war. And all measures which 
are war measures are legitimate to that end — 
are justifiable and are constitutional. We 
are, we believe the President to be, as far 
removed as any one is, or can be from a de- 
sire to prosecute this war through any breach 
in the Constitution. We desire, we believe 
the President to desire, as ardently as at^ 
one does or can, a restoration of the Union 
and a preservation of the Government in its 
integrity, without a power added to it, or a 
right shorn away: But we are, and we be- 
lieve the President to be for a vigorous pro- 
secution of this war with all its legitimate 
concomitants of imprisonment, wounds and 
death to rebellious citizen!?, and destruction 
to their property ; and yet, where does one 
find in the letter of the Constitution any sen- 
tence or word that says that the President of 
the United States may order the restraint of 
a revolted citizen, or his wounding, or his 
death, or the seizure of his property? He 
has to, we all have to, step beyond the writ- 
ten language of the Constitution to have the 
authority for such acts. Much as we admit 
the sacred right of revolution, v/e must also 
believe and declare the duty of all legitimate 
government to resist rebellion and to check 
and crush it before it shall attain tho success 
of accomphshed revolution, at all hazards, 
and with all legitimate means, moral and 
physical. It is a duty which every govern- 
ment owes to the governed, to maintain itself 
against the assaults of the disaffected by 
every means in its power ; and the more 
especially does our Governraent, which is 
based upon the con.sent of the governed, and 



w'hich has in its written charter guaranteed 
to all tVie States, a republican form of govern- 
ment, feel the weight and pressure of this 
duty. 

THE KIGHT TO PUT DOWN REBELLION. 

We have said that the right to put down j 
rebellion and attempted revolution by force ! 
of arms, is a right not in terms conferred by 
the Constitution. If then we are to worlcj 
outside of the Constitution or rather to the I 
general or inferential powers of the Constitu- 
tion for the right, we may look there also 
for the manner of the exercise of that right. I 
And hero is the fallacy' of the logic of those I 
who impute to the President an unconstitu- \ 
tional method of procedure, and where the j 
corner .stone of their argument is displaced. ! 
For going abroad from the letter of the Con- ' 
stitution for the right to wage a war to pre- 
vent rebellion becoming successful revolution, 
we acquire the right to wage that war not ac- 
cording to any formula of the Constitution 
itself but according to the laws of war, for 
war, abnormal as it is has its laws. And 
turning to the laws of war as laid down in 
writers of acknowledged authority on that 
subject, wo find that the laws of vrar, recog- 
nize and classify (among other kinds) the 
following : wars of revolution, civil wars, 
private war.s, public wars, and mixed wars, i 

"A war of revolution," says llalleck, "is } 
generally undertaken for the dismcmbeiment 
of a State, by the separation of one of its parts, 1 
or for the overthrow and radical change ofj 
the government; while an insurrectionary j 
war is sometimes waged for a very dilferent I 
purpose. Both however have respect to the I 
internal alFairs of the State, rather than to its | 
external relations. They are therefore in one j 
sense chil wars, and are governed by the same 
ycTwral rulei which are applied to that class i 
of wars. j 

"A puMk war is one carried on under the j 
direction or at least with the sanction of the ' 
supreme authority of the State." , 

"A contest by force between dilferent mem- 
bers of the same society or State, has some- ; 
times been called a mixi-d war. Grotiiis re- 
gards such a wai &a public on the side of the [ 
authorities, and private on the part of those 
who resist such authorities. * * * * ' 
But where the contest assumes the character 
of a public war as defined and recognized by 
the law of nations, it is the general usage for ! 
Other nations to concede to both parties the i 
right of war so far as regards the law of block- 
ades, of contraband <fic. * * * It should 
also be remarked that in such cases, belliger- 
ent rights may be superadded to Ihosc of soiie- 
Teig<!ity, that is, the contending parties may \ 
«tercise belligerent rights with regard to each j 
other and to neutral powers, while at the j 
«ame time, the established government of the 
State may exercise its right of sovereignty in | 



punishing." And this winter the Supremo 
Court of the United States has decided that 
vessels of Southern citizens captured while 
attempting to run the blockade upon the 
Southern coasts are lawfel prizes to the cap- 
tors, basing their decision upon the ground 
that this contest has assumed such propor- 
tions, that although in the abstract an etfort 
on the part of the Sovereign Power to put 
down a rebellion of a portion of its citizens, 
it is yet to be considered a public war, and 
that the United States has the rights of a 
belligerent, one of which is to seize the pri- 
vate property of citizens of the enemy's coun- 
try when found upon the ocean. Nor Ls tbi.s 
decision novel or strange, for the same court 
has in repeated i«st.<>nces so held before. 

"Wars of insurrection and revolution are 
in one sense civil wars. * * * Ilach party 
in such cases is usually untitled to the rights 
of war as against the other, and also with re- 
spect to neutrals." 

So that the position taken by these impugn- 
ers of the President that the United States 
Government can only proceed as a sovereiijn 
against riotous citizens is not tenable. It has 
superadded to its rights, as a sovereign, rights 
which the laws of war give to a billigerent. — 
What are those rights '! One belligerent has 
the right to deprive the other of everything 
which might add to his strength and enable 
him to carry on hostilities. And by abstract 
right, private property is subject to seizure 
and confiscation, and though this rule has 
been moderated by modern usages on land, 
still the abstract right continues, and no one 
will contend that this is a war in which it 
should be ignored or abandoned. 

THE EMANOII'ATION POLIOV. 

Now turn to the proclamation of the President 
what does he say is the basis upon which he 
issues it? "As a fit and necessary war 
tncasiire, lor suppressing said rebellion." It 
is as a war measure, it is in the character 
of a belligerent, with the rights of a belligerent 
added to those of a .sovereign that the Presi- 
dent as the Executive of our Government, as 
the Commander-in-Chief of tiie Army and 
Navy, has issued liis Proclamation, ijut it 
is asked can j-ou change tlio title to property 
by the mere promulgation of a decree or pro- 
clamation ? Perhaps not. But think first 
of the property upon which this proclamation 
is designed to operate. It is the slaves held 
at the South. You may consider them in two 
relationti, as men or as chattels. As men, as 
inhabitants of a hostile country, with which 
this government is waging war, it has a right 
to entice them away by proclamation or what- 
.soever other device. "It sometimes happens 
in war," says Halleck, "that intestine divi- 
sions prevail among the enemy's forces, and 
that one party may favor the objects for 
which we are contending. In such cases we 



"may without scruple hold correspondence 
with the one facticn and avail ourselves of its 
assistance to overthrow the other party." — 
As chattels, the slaves are to be considered, 
with the peculiarities which distinguish them 
from other chattels. 

They have life and volition, and the sus- 
ceptibility 01 being influenced by the presen- 
tation ot motives, and the power of self- 
locomotion, and the power, by the exercise 
of reason, to make choice, as for instance in 
a ehange of habitation upon the presentation 
of these motives. In this they ditler from 
most if not all other chattels. If it is can- 
ceded, or if we have shown it to be true, 
that the property of citizens in rebellious 
States may be taken by the laws of war, the 
United States Government might take their 
cottou and any other article of property as 
soon and as often as it could by tlie advance 
of its armies reach this cotton. Nur could 
the Government lake cotton or any unreason- 
ing chattel in any other way, for being in- 
animate or unreasoning it must be taken .ind 
transferred by manual capture and physical 
force. But suppose a bale of cotton could 
be vitalized and rendered self-locomotive,and 
capable of yielding to the influence of mo- 
tives presented, and of running away and 
deserting the owner of it, would it not be as 
legitimate a way of obtaining this cotton 
and despoiling the owner of it, by a paper 
proclamation, as by the march of a large 
army into the country to seize and transfer 
it? Certainly it wohM. And here we have, 
all through the country of our rebellious 
enemies, a species of property which has life 
and sense, and the power of ciioice from mo- 



THB ISSUE. 

Of the other measures employed by the 
Government in the prosecution of this war 
it is unnecessary that we should comment at 
length. The Government is not required to 
adopt any particular line of policy nor stake 
the issue ot the conflict upon tlie success or 
failure of any enactment or measure. Only let 
it evince a purpose to wage war u]ion war 
principles — to strike vigorously at the heart 
of the conspiracy — to harrass and weaken 
the enemy by all the means which it can 
employ known to civilized warfare — and 
upon no account to consent to terms of 
compromise or armistice until the traitora 
shall unconditionally submit to the lawful 
authority of the Government, and the loy- 
alty and patriotism of the country will be 
1 content. Above all let our rulers keep 
1 steadily in view the great and overshadow- 
ing fact that a great question of govern- 
I ment is involved and our national existence 
I is in jeopardy — that all questions ef mere 
i philanthropy, local attachment and party 
i feality, must be subordinated to the one 
great duty of maintaining tor ever, undivi- 
' ded and indivisible, the power, the unity 
I and the integrity of the Republic. 

I The rebellion is not the effectof parties nor 
of the teachings of the schools, nor the instruc- 
tions of the pulpit, but is the outgrowth of a 
public sentiment and social a system in the 
Southern States which demanded a cardinal 
change in the essential principles of our gov- 
ernment, and that it should conform more 
nearly to the aristocratic and monarchical 
governments of Europe. That this public 
sentiment was the natural and necessary pro- 
tives presented, and of self-locomotion to j duct of the system of African Slavery, which 
seek the gratification of that choice. Is it i is in its very nature dangerous and hostile to 
not then just as legitimate to send a paper ] free institutions cannot be denied. The issue 
missile into the country of the enemy and ! thus made by the traitors and forced upon us is, 
take from ftem their property by means of shall the Government that our fathers founded 
it as it would be to march an army through j and the free institutions which have been our 



the land — freeing as it went ? If the prop- 
erty, being of that peculiar kind that its own 
inclination may be addressed by a printed 
sheet, and it thus sent, to leaving the enemy 
and coming to us, it will be hard to prove 



boast from childhood be overthrown and our 
best hope go down in darkness, or shall that 
(rovernment and those institutions be main- 
tained in their early purity and vigor and be 
transmitted to those who shall follow in our 



that the United States Government may not 1 footsteps and bear our names? As men and 



gain possession of it as well by a proclama- 
tion as by a charge of infantry. And if 
after the Government has possessed itself of 
a bale of cotton of a Southern citizen it may 
destroy it, or turn it into money, may it not, 
when it has possessed itself of a slave of a 
Southern citizen, destroy it or turn it into 
soraetliing else? It may. It may turn the 
slave into a freeman. It thus destroys the 
slave, the property it took; and this, as we 
understand it, is what the President proposes 
to do by his proclamation, ~" 
inore. 



as freemen we must meet this issue and face 
this responsibility. So mighty a stake has 
never beea played for by the despots and ty- 
rants of the world, involving as it does not 
the title to a crown or the fate of the Koyal 
blood, but the great life-giving principles of 
human liberty — the fondest hopes the most 
cherished aspiration of our race. 

Dark shall be the day and bitter the wai! 

that shall herald the triumph of this rebellion, 

which shall roll back the civilization of the 

This' and no j age and shroud in gloom the fairest and freest 

portion of the earth, which shall blast the 



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hopes of the down trodden millions in every 
land, and leave us to drain to the dregs the 
bitter cup of national humiliation and dis- 
grace — to hang our heads in shame at the 
mention of our birth place and our name, 
and earn for us the melancholy rellection 
that we have lost, by our cowardice and 
faithlessness, what our heroic fathers gained 
through suffering and blood. Better that 
death should enter eveiy household — that 
war and famine should devastate the land, 
and that a curse should light upon the limbs 
of men — than that this proud nation should 
BuUy its high renown and humble itself in 
aharae. AVhat is worth 3'our riches when 
national honor is no more ? Of what avail is 
power or station when government shall have 
been disgraced "? No, fellow-citizens, there 
can be no termination of this conilict which 
shall not concede the triumph of the republic. 
However fondly we may wi.sh for the better 
day, when the clangor of war shall be heard 
no more, and the loved ones may return to 
their anxious homes, we should still remem- 
ber that the price of this return must never 
be the loss of liberty or the sacrilice of honor. 
What then, in view of these terrible realities 
is the duty of our free countrymen in this 
day of national peril. There can be but one 
answer to this interrogation. Unconditional 
loyalty to the Government upon which now 
centres all our hopes, and a patriotic and un- 
selfish devotion to the great cause which de- 
mands all our etforts. Our lives, our for- 
tunes and our saared ho«ior should now ke 
laid upon the altar of th.at country which has 
given us all we have, and is to us all that we 
hope to b». Let uo factious rivalries— no 
party bickerings — no cowardly mi-sgivings 
stand between us and the preservation of 
onr beloved C9untry. 

"Whatever else may he said by the historian 
who shall make the record of this rebellion, 
let it not be said that the republic died 
through the treachery or imbecility of its 
children. Let us not present to the world 
the disgraceful spectacle of a free and mighty 
people — descendants of a heroic ancestry 
with every incentive to unselfish devotion to 
our country's cause now wanting in p.itriot- 
ism and failing in comprehension of the 
mighty issues of tlie hour. Blind to the 
philosophy of this mighty struggle and un- 
mindful of tlie workings of that great law 
of nature which, through convulsion, blood- 
shed and human sutt'ering, is developing light 
and liberty and emore husnaneand widespread 
civililization. Let us net hesitate to strike 
this treason, lest human manacles should 
be loosened nor while "liberty is being cru- 
cified, be casting lots for its garments." — 

HOPE FOIi TnR FUTURE. 

In the contemplation of the present, we have 
"vthing to encourage us to an unflinching 



and vigorous prosecution of this contest. 
On every side we behold increased evidences 
of the patriotism and devotion of our people, 
and a fixed resolve that this war can enly be 
terminated by a restoration of the national 
unity and authority. It is uo longer the 
sudden outburst of a brilliant but fickle en- 
thusiasm, but is the settled and unalterable 
determination of a great people who have 
calmly calculated the sacrifices and weighed 
the consequences that must follow from this 
resolution. Witli resources still unlimited — 
with men and .".mmuuitions of war to any ex- 
tent called for by the general government, 
and with a patriotism unabated and undaunt- 
ed, we exhibit to the world the grandest ex- 
hibition of the strength and power of a free 
nation, that has ever been witnessed. Look 
on the other hand upon the waning propor- 
tions and dying struggles ol the rebellion. 
Shut up and hemmed in on every side by 
bristling bayonets and federal cannon, over- 
matched at every point and vainly seeking 
to maintain for a few brief months longer, 
its usurped authority and ill-gained power j 
condemned, and under the face of the en- 
lightened public sentiment of the civilized 
world — weighed down by debt and taxation — 
shut out from all hope of aid from foreign 
nations — and with famine, insurrection and 
speedy dissolution staring them in the face, 
they are fast being taught to feel the just 
retribution for the most atrocious crime 
against their government that the world has 
ever known. 

We cannot close this somewhat extended 
address without tendering to the Army and 
Navy of the Union our warmest thauks and 
sinoerest congratulations. They have justly 
earned- the undying gratitude of our whole 
people and the admiration of true patriots 
all over the world. For the dead are grate- 
ful memories and glorious names, which shall 
ever live and grow brighter as time rolls o». 
For the living there are in store new honors 
as the just rewards of the privations and 
sacrifices they have endured. To recruit and 
fill up their thinned ranks, we earnestly 
second tlieir demand for a faithful cnforco- 
ment of tlie laws of Congress designed for 
that end, and we pledge ourselves that no 
efforts shall be spared upon our part to pro- 
vide for their safely and insure their triumph. 

Wo have, with a due sense of our obli- 
gations to these brave men, ende.ivored 
to extend the privileges of tlie Elective 
Franchise fiom which they are practically 
excluded. We have passed through both 
branches of the Legislature a carefully 
drawn and well guarded law, which would 
h.ive secured to tlie soldier at once that most 
sacred of all rights that a freeman can pos- 
sess. The Executive Veto has, however, 
thwarted these efforts and rendered our la- 



bors nnaviiiling. But the brave men who 
Imve perilled their all to save the country hikI 
uphold the Constitution must await a further 
appeal to the Sovereign People ti <Jo them 
the justice which has been denied them now. 
Witli our kindest wislies for their coiofort 
and w-elfare, and our most earnest prayer 
that the (Jreat Ruler of the Universe will 
spare their lives and return to us in success 
an J safety our sires, our brothers and our 
sons, we bid tliein God speed in the glori- 
oas cause, and we pledge to them ttio imfalter- 
ing support, the continued love and gratitude 
of all true men. 

.TESSEO. SMITFI. C. A, BENJAMIN, 

H. D ROBKRTSON, LEVI JIILLEII. 

HENRY K, LOW. WltJ.IAJI TlRWF.Y. 

■WILLIAM H. TOBEY, JOHN C'lnoKERINi;. 

KALPIT RICHARDS, HAMIL''ON f; 8111 lU, 

JOSEPH II. RAMSEY, SAIMUEL SlvlNNEK, 

VWILLIAM CLARK, WILLIAM II. BR\ND, 

BUSSELL M. LITTLE, GEORGE L. KOC-E, 

C. 0. MONT(^OMERy, GEO. E. McGUNEttAL, 

JiAMRS A. PELL. WILLIAM BROWN, 
ALEXANDER II.BAILEY vVILLIiM MORGAN. 

GEORGE A. HARDIN, DANIEL M. PRESCOTT, 

HICFri) K. SAN?ORD, ISAAC McDOUGALL, 

ALLEN MUNROE. JAMES M. MIINRO, 

HEMRY A. CLARK, JOSKPH BEEKD. 

LYMAN TRUMAN, PEREZ II, HKLD, 

C. M. ABBOTT, L ANSON DEWEY, 

CHARLES J POLQEB, JOHN PARKS, 

CHARLES COOK. ABNER C. MATTOON, 

LYSANDER FARRAE, HIRAM W. LOOMIS, 

A. HUTCHINSON, HARVEY P\LMKR, 
"WILKES ANGEL. . C. A. CHURCH, 
HOR.VCE C. YOUNG, J. «. QUACKENBUSH, 
A;E. CRUTTENDF.N, E. P. TOWNSLEY. 

B. D. LOVERIDGB, JAMES BEDINGTON, 
FR-NCIS B. SMITH, A.X.PARKER. 
ANDREW L ALLEN, N. M. HOUGHTON. 
6EOEQE I. POST. SAMUEL LAWRENCE, 
WM. P. ROBINSON, JOHN W. TAGAiy, 
JOHN STEWARD, HENRY SHERWC*D. 
HENRY C. LAKE. NATHANIEL W. DAVIS, 
ELIZUR U.PRINDLE, HORACE BRMIS, 
BRANCIS B. FISHKK, BENJ. F. WIGGINS, 

E. W. BOSTWICK. EZRA CORNELL. 

H.B. VAN noESV'N, . JACOB LE FEVER, 

ROBT. W. (,'OURTNEY, ASAC. TEFFI', 

ANSON G. CONGER, ERVIN HOPKINS, JR., 

PALMER E. HAVENS, T. W. COLLINS. 

ALBUKT ANDRUS, LEMUEL BURPEE. 
WILLARD ,1. HEiCOCK, NEWTON ALIiRK'H, 

LOREN GREEN. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, 

GRIFFIN SWEET, GUY .SHAW, 

A. C. McGOWaN, BYRON IIEALY'. 



THE SOLDIEieS' VOTING BISaJL. 

lu Senate. 

Apiui, 21, 1803. 
Rbpokt of toe majority of the oommitteb 
on pkivilkges and elections, on tflk .mes- 
sage of the oovrlinor, kelativk to al- 
lowing soldiers to vote. 
The committee on privileges and elections, 
to which was referred the paper addressed 
and transmitted to the Senate by his Excel- 
lency the Governor, on the 13th iu.stant, pur- 
portmg to bo a message from that dignitary, 
have the honor to 

REPORT : 
That they have attentively considered the 
document referred to, and are constrained to 
regard its contents as most strange and inde- 
fensible, and its transmission to this body, 
under the circumstances, as a breach of the 



I privileges of the Senate. Althongh the pro- 
priety of so amending the election laws of this 
.State as to enable elector.s absent from tlieir 
homes, imperrihng their lives in vindicating 
the supremacy of their country's Constitution 
from the .assaults of conspiracy and rebellion 
was fully discussed during the late guberna- 
torial canvass, and it was even iirojiosed. in 
some quarters, to take such vote informally, 
to enable those brave "men to express their 
opinions upon the issues ot the day ; although 
other States had changed their laws relating 
to suffrage, some of them by special called 
.sessions for that purpose, so as to enable this 
class of electors to participate with their fel- 
low citizens at home in the election of those 
entrusted witli the management of public af- 
fairs; and although his Excellency, in his an- 
nual message, found ample range for discus- 
sing national alfairs, at unusual length and 
with L'reat freedom, and for reviewing and se- 
verely criticisin.g the acta of the Federal ad- 
ministration in the prosecution of the wariti 
all its aspects, he was entirely oblivious to the 
rights ot snfi'rage for the soldier and the sail- 
or, and remained so, until the action of the 
Senate upon the subject, as heremafter men- 
tioned ; though he h»s more than once du- 
ring the session communicated with the Leg- 
islature by special raess.age. Since such leg- 
islation, and the passage of a bill by the Sen- 
ate securing such right of suffrage, it seems 
to have occurred to his Excellency that the 
subject was one of "great interest to the peo- 
ple of this State, and had justly excited their 
attention ;" and also that '-those who so nobly 
endure fatigue, and suffering, and peril life, 
ia the hope that by such sacrifices our na- 
tional Union may be ]ireserved, and our Con- 
stitution upheld," deserve some consider- 
ation : and he expresses the desire that "they 
should if possible, be secured an opportunity 
for the free and intelligent exercise of all their 
political rights and privileges ;" but his Ex- 
cellency fails to inform the Senate whether 
he unites in the laudable hope which he says 
is indulged by the worthy subjects of his no- 
tice. He, however, gravely objects to the 
amendment of the laws permitting this class 
of electors to vote when absent, because their 
suffrages, like tho.se of any other electors, 
"may decide the election in favor o[ one party 
or the oilier''^ — certainly not in favor of both. 
In the absence of any recommendation from 
the Governor upon the subject of securing the 
right of suffrage to this most meritorious class 
of electors, in obedience to the popular de- 
mand, and in harmony with the commonest 
dictates of justice, a bill was introJuced into 
the Senate upon notice on the Gth of Febru- 
ary last, and after passing through all the or- 
dinary forms of legislation, and receiving 
elaborate discussion, it passed on the 2d day 
of April, by a vote of nineteen to seven, and 



s 



was transmitted to the Assembly foi' concur- 
rence, wliere, it it is understood, it has receiv- 
ed consideration, aud is still pending before 
that body. 

The -Ith article of the Constitntion, section 
4, provides that the Governor '•shall commu- 
nicate by message co the Legislature, at every 
session, the condition of the State, aud re- 
commend such ma'ters to them as he siiall 
judge expedient." 

Section 9, of tne same article, provides that 
"every bill which shall have passed the Sen- 
ate and Assembly, shall be presented to the 
Governor for his signature ; if he approve, he 
shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it 
with is objections to that House in which it 
originated;" t£c. 

These, and these only, are the occasions 
upon which the Governor is authorized to 
communicate with the Legislature. He has 
no right to address the Senate legislatively, 
as a separate body and co-ordinate branch of 
the Legislature at any time, except upon the 
return of a bill with his objections ; and yet 
this communication is so addressed ; but 
whether by inadvertence, or to give point to 
the Executive hat, it is periiaps not material 
to imiuire. 

While the Governor may at all times re- 
commend to the Legislature such matters as 
he shall judge expedient, any attempt to re- 
view pending bills, either openly, or, as in this 
case, under the shallow disguise of an Execu- 
tive reoounuendation, or to obtrude his opin- 
ions, however replete with profundity or 
abounding with wisdom, upon the Legislature 
or upon either branch, is both officious and 
impertinent — as delicient in taste as it is re- 
prehensible in [>rinciple and mischievous in 
practice. Its resort betokens the necessitous 
and straightened politician, rather than the 
statesman, and deserves at all times rebuke 
and reprehension, and especially in times like 
these. This paper, transmitted as a message 
to the Senate, after more than tl]ree months 
of the session has elapsed, aud within two 
days ot the expiration of the one hundred, or- 
dinarily allotted to legislation, m a brief sen- 
tence, recouMuends that steps be taken to 
amend the Constitution, instead of to change 
the law as profiosed by the bill nnder con- 
sideration , and so far as relates to this re- 
coraraendation, tar-fetched and untimely as 
it seems, in the closing days of an extended 
session, it is within his constitutional pre- 
rogative, and is as all other authorized emana 
tions from the Executive Chamber are and 
should be, entitled to the respect which one 
branch or department of the government 
owes to anotljer ; or rather, it would have 
been within the scope of Executive orivilege 
and duty, hac not the constitutional amend- 
ment at the time of his communication been 
depehding in the Assembly. As it was, two 



measures, looking to the same end, were lie- 
fore the Legislature, and in palpable violation 
of right of privilege, he is pleased to inter- 
fere directly with legislation, by urging the 
passage of one, and declaring he will veto the 
other. 

But again, the sincerity of those who »o 
persistently urge an amendment of the Con- 
stitution, under the pretence that it will en- 
able tke soldiers and sailors engaged iu |he 
present war to vote abroad, can be tested T)y 
a plain statement of the time which muist be 
consumed before the voting, according to tlie 
ordinary course, can be thus authorized, and 
by a description of the machinery which mnat 
be perfected. The proposod constitutional 
amendments must pass the present Legisla- 
ture ; they must then be submitted to the next 
Legislature, in 1S04, and pass that body by a 
vote of two-thirds of all the members elect- 
ed ; they must then be submitted to the peo- 
ple at November election of 1864, and if they 
I are approved by the popular vote, they will 
j bo incorporated in, and stand as a provision 
of the Constitution. If the pro|.osed amend- 
1 ments shall sncoesstiilly have run this legisla- 
tive gauntlet, then and afterwards, laws may 
be passed by the Legislature of 1865, pre- 
scribing the details and manner of taking the 
votes ; and if this is done by such legislation, 
tliose in the service of their country abroad 
will be entitled to vote at the general election 
in. November, 1865 1 — one year .after the next 
Presidential canvass, and, as all loyal men 
hope ipid believe, long after the rebellion has 
I been crushed, and our brave sons who have 
i not fallen, have returnrd to their homes, and 
i been welcomed by the jjlaudits of a griiteful 
i country. And all these bright anticipations 
i will have been realized before the autumn of 
! 1865, unless thenefarious mission of rebellion 
is protracted by those who give it aid and en- 
couragement and hope by covert, half-con- 
cealed warfare upon the Gener.il Government 
and its administration, like the assassin who 
strikes the blow, but attempts to conceal the 
hand. 

But it must be obvious to the most casual 
observation, from the language employed, 
that the brief sentence devoted to this re- 
commendation was among the least of the 
purposes for which the communication was 
made, and that its chief object- was to dictate 
to and instruct the Legislature in a matter 
pertaining to its own peculiar duties, as weL 
as to reach the popular mind in a censure of 
the Federal administration, by ambidextrious 
discussion in a sjjecial message, of national 
affairs, over which neither the Executive nor 
the Legislature have jurisdiction or control, 
and which are foreign to the official duties 
and obligations of both. 

It seeks to quicken the Executive scheme, 
by suspending the veto in startling terrorem 



9 



before tLe Legislature, in advance, and by 
declaring that his own mind is decided upon 
the subject, and will govern his action offi- 
cially ; and this admonition is bestowed, too, 
touching a bill of which he has no 
official knowledge, with which he has 
even no concern or business, and 
will not have hereafter, unless it is passed 
and sent for hisjapproval, when it will be his 
duty to examine it impartially and not dis- 
pose of it upon preconceived opinions; a bill 
which may or may not pass, or if it does, 
may be with or without amendments, chang- 
ing its character essentially. The Constitu- 
tion contemplates that the Governor will ex- 
amine bills when presented for his approval, 
after their pMsage hy both branches, calmly 
and dispassionately, and not before ; and any 
attempt by the Executive to pass upon their 
merits, either in gross or in detail ; upon the 
priDciple that they propose to establish, or 
the language by which they seek to attain it, 
while yet under consideration by the Legis- 
lature, and to herald either his approval or 
disapproval in advance, is grossly unwarrant- 
able and much worse than gratuitou.s. It 
tends to break down the constitutional bar- 
riers which have wisely sought to render the 
co-ordinate branches of the sovernment in- 
dependent of each other in tlieir action, and 
to bring jealousy and conflict wliere there 
should be confidence and harmonious action. 
The office of Governor is one of conceded 
dignity, but that does not constitute the in- 
cumbent the tutor nor the school master of 
the Senate, nor authorize him to read lect- 
urers upon political ethics or constitutional 
law, nor to review or question its action, 
past, present or projinsed, except as espe- 
cially provided by the Constitution. So far 
as the Governor knew anything concerning 
the bill extending tlie right of suffrage, it 
was unolficial : but he must have known 
that tile Senate had, upon elaborate dis- 
cus.sion and careful consideration, pa.ssed it, 
and he shimhl liace Imyion that while, if the 
bill should pass both branches and be sent 
for his approval, his olijeotione would be en- 
titled to respect : that before its final passage, 
arty opiiiions formally and officially commu- 
nicated or obtruded, would be an insult to 
the dignity of the body, and meriting its se- 
verest censiu'e. The Senate having pronoun- 
ced its opinion upon both the constitutionali- 
ty and expediency of this bill, in the most 
solemn form, the committee, as the organ of 
the Senate, cannot consent to discuss either 
branch of t)ie question with any one ; even 
the Executive chief, until it shall be return- 
ed with objections, as provided by the Con- 
stitution ;, and they, therefore, in their re- 
port, waive all consideration of these ques- 
tions. They regard the action of the Gov- 
ernor as a direct breach of privilege, as 



as much so as though he had criticised tha, 
bill by its title and number, and bestowe«l , 
his censure openly instead of by indirection. 
Breaches of privilege are not tolerated even 
in monarchies. ''It is highly expedient," 
says Hatsell, "for the due preservation of the 
privileges of the seperate branches of the 
Legislature, that neither should encroach on 
the other, or interfere in any matter depend- 
inf; before them, so as to preclude or even 
influence that freedom of debate wluch ib 
essential to a free council. They are, there- 
fore, not to take notice of any bills or other 
matters depending, or votes that have been 
given, or ef speeches that have been helfl, 
by the members of either of the other bran- 
ches of the Legislature, until the same have 
been communicated to them in tlie usual 
parliamentary manner. 

"Thus the King's taking notice of the 
bill for suppressing soldiers, depending be- 
fore the House — bis proposing a provisional 
clause for a bill before it was presented to 
him by the two Houses, his exprer.sing dis- 
pleasure against some person for matters 
moved in Parliament during the debate and 
preparation of a bill, were breaches of pri- 
vileges." (Manual of ISiiB, page 99.) In- 
deed, so scrupulously regardful was the pre- 
sent Executive of tliis salutary principle in 
the early part of the session, that, although 
it had no application whatever, he invoked it 
as a reason for declining to interfere as Chief 
Magistrate, in commanding and enforcing the 
peace, when the House of Assembly was fot, 
weeks prevented from organizing by a feror, 
cious mob and tlireats of assassination, and 
declared that "There is an obvious impro- 
priety in ony interference by one department 
of the government with the proceedings of 

I any co-ordinate branch,'' &c. 

But, objectionable as is the cominuDication, 
touching our domestic concerns, the comr, 
mittee woul<l leave a high duty undiscliarged 
if they failed to declare that in their judg- 
ment it deserves the severest reprehension 
tor attempting, through a special and extra- 
ordinary message from the Governor to the 
Senate, to drag into discussion elements o'f 
strife, from w hich a partizan press and mere 
party politicians derive their aliment, and of 
which they should be permitted a monopoly. 
It has seemed enough to the conimittee that 
our beloved Union is threatened with des- 
truction by rebellious States and people — 

I that our braves are sacrificed by tensof thou- 
sands upon their country's altar, in defence 
of the Constitution — that foi-eign powers are 
plotting the overthrow of free goverament — 
are furnishing rebellion moral and material 
aid and comfort — are constructing and man- 
ning and arming pirate ships to cruise against 
our commerce upon the high seas, and in ftie 
degraded spirit of cowardice and menacing 



10 



V 



us ill our diplotnatie relations, bechiise tliey 
Bee us engaged in conquering rebellion, and 
liope we have not the power to chastise their 
insolence or repel their aggressions : — that 
political demagogues in our midst are conni- 
ving with the representatives of Great Bri- 
tain, blunted with envions rivalry and here- 
ditary hate, and stimulated by recent hopes, 
for the stealthy intervention of unfriendly 
foreign powers, to the end that rebellion may 
triumph and the land that our fathers loved 
be despoiled forever. 

But when the Chief Magistrate of the 
first State of the Union, under the cover of 
a brief and simple recommendation to the 
Legislature of a single measure, strictly lo- 
cal and domestic in its character, is so sur- 
charged with a desire to assail the admin- 
istration of national affairs, that he must 
violate all the proprieties of station and 
place and occasion to so do, the heart sick- 
ens over the contemplation. It tells of 
einouldering sentiments which, though dis- 
guised beneath a plausible exterior, are by 
no means concealed, and it admonisbe.a, too, 
that they bode no good to the Republic. — 
Our distracted country may crush armed re- 
bellion and repel foreign aggression by her 
own inherent forces, but no government has 
ever yet withstood the silent gnawings of 
the canker at its heart strings, by those who 
repose on its bosom and bask in its sunslii«e. 
The hope of rebellion, black with crime, 
Jiaggard with starvation and shivering with 
destitution, struggles on in its career of 
conspiracy and murder, awaiting the day 
wiien those who openly assail the govern- 
ment and fail to conceal their sympathy 
with the rebellion, shall, by the aid of foreign 
intervention, come to its relief and assis- 
tance, and help it to achieve its triumph in 
a divided Union, and the loyal mind should 
govern itself accordingly. The annals of 
history, sacred or pro'^'.ne, fail to furuisli 
examples of patriotism and love of country 
so commanding as our own. Our sons and 
brothers left their homes and families, the 
children who looked to tbetn for sustenance 
and protection, that they might protect the 
cherished home of free government which 
offers shelter to the wliole family of man, 
alike to all the children of a common Fa- 
ther. 

They bade adieu to those they loved, that 
they might rescue from the despoiler the 
land of their heart's best affections, and dis- 
charge the trust committed by their fathers 
to preserve it for posterity; — they are dy- 
ing amidst the malaria of swamps and the 
hter of the battle-field with more than 
firmness, and without a murmur; 



\ 

Aing ami 
slanght 
„ , lioman 



but their hearts bleed and sicken and die, 
as they tnrn tlieir pale, tearless faces back- 
ward, with the painful and humiliating re- 
flection, that the murderers against whom 
they are doing battle, are nerved to their 
bloody work by words of encouragement, 
drawn from within the shadows of th<?ir 
own consecrated homes. 

The rebellion will seek the prostration of 
our government, the division of our Union, 
and the subversion of the Constitution, and 
prosecute its work of death and devasta- 
tion so long as it can draw aliment and hope 
from the virus of political conflicts in the 
loyal States ; and when, if ever, the que- 
nduus tones of party are silenced, and it is 
left to self-communion, and forced by self- 
examination to calculate its own resources, 
and to repose upon them alone, it will soon 
gasp out its ignoBle esistonce, and be re- 
membered no more, except for the atrocities 
it has perpetrated upon civilization. 

In the belief that tlie communication from 
his Excellency, under consideration, was 
extra-official «nd unautharized — that its ten- 
dency is to stimulate and encourage this 
lawless rebellion, by exhibiting a divided 
sentiment at home, and a censorious spirit 
against the national administration by the 
Governor of this State, to foster partizan or- 
ganizations and promote political conflicts, 
to dishearten those who are engaged in the 
service of our common country, and to sow 
the seeds of disunion and demoralization, 
where a renewed love of country, and a 
more exalted patriotism should alone be cul- 
tivated — to arrest, as far as possible, the 
mischievous influences so insidiously infused, 
to vindicate the independence and dignity of 
the Senate, and to rebuke the attempt to in- 
fluence its action and unwarrantably review 
its proceedings and deliberations, the com- 
mittee recommend the passage of the fol- 
lowing resohitians: 

Ee^ohcd, That the paper without date, 
addressed and transmitted to the Senate on 
the 13th instant, by his Excellency the Gov- 
ernor, purporting to be a message to the 
Senate from him, was extra-ofticial and au- 
thorized, and that its transmission was a 
breach of the privileges of the Senate ; and, 
to the end that the independence and digni- 
ty of the Senate be vindicated, and the 
breach of privilege be suitably rebuked, and 
may not servo as a precedent, be it further 

lieaolred. That said communication be 
laid upon the table, without action thereon 
or further notice. 

All »)f which is respectfully submitted. 
Charles Cook. 
George A. IlAituitf. 



11 



ATTOUISETGENERAli DICKINSOIV OIV 
the: StOIiUIER'S PROXY VOTG BII.Ij. 

In answer to a Resolution of Inquiry of 
the Senate, the following lucid opinion was 
received by that body, Wednesday April 
20th, from the Attorney General, relative to 
the bill allowing Soldiers of this State, in 
the service of the United States, to vote by 
proxy : 

I am advised informally, that an early an- 
swer is required, and being pressed with 
other official eiigagements, I have not the 
timeforsuch examination as the gravity of 
the subject merits, and must give the results 
of such partial consideration as I have been 
enabled to bestow upon it. 

It is provided by Article 1, Subdivision 1, 
that "no member of this Slate shall be dis- 
franchised, or deprived of any of the rights 
or privileges secured to any citizen thereof, 
unless by the law of the land, and the judg- 
ment of his peers." 

Article 11, section 1, provides "^at every 
male citizen of the .age of twenty-one, who 
shall have been a citizen for tea days, and an 
inhabitant of the State one year next preced- 
ing an election, and for the last four months 
a resident of the county where he may oiler 
his vote, shall be entitled to vote at such 
election, in the election district of which he 
shall at the time be a resident, and not else- 
where, for all officers that now are or here- 
after may be elected by the people ; but such 
citizen shall have been for thirty days next 
preceding the election, a resident of the dis- 
trict from which the ofricer is to be chosen 
for whom he otters his vote." 

Section o, of the same article, provides, 
that "'for the purpose of voting no person 
shall be deemed to have gained or lost a resi- 
dence, by reason of his presence or absence, 
■while employed in the service of the United 
States," &c. 

These are all the provisions relative to the 
matter, and 1 am not aware that they or sim- 
ilar ones have ever received judicial consider- 
ation or construction. The question is, there- 
fore, an open one, and must be decided by 
best lights which can be drawn from the let- 
ter and spirit of the Constitution. We have 
seen that neither the soldier nor the sailor 
loses his residence by absence in the service 
of the United States, and this leaves but a 
single question, and that is whether the ac- 
tual presence of the elector is required by the 
Constitution, or whether the Legislature may 
authorize the deposit of his vote while he yet 
continues in service abroad. 

That the proposed method may be incon- 
venient, cumbrous and liable to fraud and 
abuse, is no answer to its validity, for unless 
it is prohibited by the Constitution, it may be 



authorized by law. The elector "must offer 
his vote," bnt must he necessarily do so in 
person and with his own hand, or may the 
Legislature authorize liim to ofter it in other 
modes? lie clearly need not offer it with 
his own band, for the sick and infirm and 
paralized may vote, and so may the soldier 
or sailor who has lost both hands and arms in 
the service of his country ; and unless the 
Constitution requires his presence at the polls 
the Constitution may dispense with it. Tlio 
elector is abroad, but he is still regarded by 
the Constitution as a resident of his election 
district and entitled to vote there and not 
elsewhere. If he continues to serve his 
country, he must either be disfranchised, at a 
time and uuder circumstances when all the 
privileges of citizenship and especially those 
of an elector are uiore inestimable than ever, 
unless the laws and Constitution he is 
defending, secure to him his birth-right. 

There is nothing in the Constitution indi- 
cating the manner of voting unless by impli- 
cation, and there is certainly nothing in it 
either expressed or implied which prohibits 
the legislature from prescribing such forms for 
depositing the votes of election as in its wis- 
dom it may deem best. I therefore hold that 
Senate bill No. 300 entitled " An act to secure 
the Elective Franchise to the qualified voters 
of the Army and Navy of the State of New- 
York," is not in conflict with the Constitu- 
tiou, an consequently that no amendment of 
that instrument is necessary to secure the 
Elective Franchise to such voters while ab- 
sent from the State in the service of the 
United States. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 
D. S. Dickinson, Attorne^General. 



THE SOLDIESIS SUFFRAGE BILL. 

Passed the Senate, April 1. 18C-3. 

Passed the Assembly, April 22, 1863. 

Vetoed by the Governor, April 24, 1863. 
AN ACT to secure the Elective Franchise 

to the qualitied voters of the army and 

navy of tlie State of New York. 
The People of the State of New Ycrk, 
represented in Senate and Assembly, do en- 
act as follows: 

Section 1. In time of war, insurrection 
or rebellion, every qualified and duly regis- 
tered voter of the State of New York, in the 
military or naval service of this State or the 
United States, who shall, on the day of elec- 
tion be without the State of New York, the 
said voter being in actual service and not 
having deserted nor having been dismissed 
the service, shall be entitled to vote at every 
general election hereafter to be held, 
in the election district where he shall have 
a residence at the time of such election, and 
the said voter shall have the right to cast his 



12 



ballot and vote, unless it shall appear that 
Mch person is then dead, in the following 
manner: 

§ 2. lie shall, hy an inetrument or certifi- 
cate in writing, made, and executed between 
the fifteenth day of September and first day 
of fToveraber in each year, authorize and em- 
power any elector, who shall be a voter in the 
election district where such qualified voter in 
the army or navy, aforesaid, shall have a 
residence, to cast for him his vote or ballot, 
' in the same manner as other votes are cast, 
for all officers for which he would have a 
right to vote if lie were in person present at 
such election ; and the said certificate or in- 
strument in writing, shall be signed by the 
voter, in the service, as aforesaid, and attest- 
ed by a subscribing witness, and shall be ac- 
knowledged or proved in the same manner as 
deeds of conveyance are required to be prov- 
ed ; such acknowledraent or proof may be 
made before any acting major, lieutenant 
colonel or colonel of the regiment, or capitan 
or commandant of any vessel to which the 
said person or voter may belong or be at- 
tached ; all of which officere are hereby au- 
thorized and empowered to administer the 
affidavits and take the acknowledgment or 
proof required by this act, and the said per- 
son or voter in the service of this State or the 
United States, shall make and subscribe the 
following afiidavit and attach the same (if 
made upon a separate peice of paper) to the 
certificate or instrument in writing, before 
mentioned to wit : 

"I, A. B.. do solemnly swear that I 
have been a citizen of the United States for 
ten days, am now at the age of twenty-one 
years, that Uiave been or shall be an inha- 
bitant of the State of New York for one 
year next preceding the election to be held 
the day ot '180, 

and for the last four months a resident of 
the country of • ; thati have been 

or shall be, for thirty days next preceding 
the said election, a resident of Assembly 
district number ' in tlie town of 

'in said county. Cor if senate or 
congressional district, or district, ward, town, 
village or city, from whicli the oflioer to be 
«hosen, for whom said person offers to vote, 
describe the same.) that I am now, and until 
said election intend to be, a resident of the 
town of ' (or ward, as the case 

may be,) and of election district number 
' in said of ' (or in 

■ward ' in the city of ,) 

and that T have not made any bet or wager, 
and am not, directly or indirectly, interested 
in any bet or wager depending upon the re- 
sult of said election, and that I have not 
\ voted nor empowered any other person than 
1 B. C, in the annexed or foregoing certificate 
uamed, to deliver any ballot for me at said 



election, and I do further swear that I am ki 
the actual military or naval service of the 
state of New York, (or of the United States) 
that I am not a deserter nor have I been, 
dismissed said service, and that I am uow a 
member of company ' 

regiment, (describing the organization to 
which be belongs) now at or near 
'in the state (or territory) of ." 

S3. The said voter, in the service as afore- 
said, shall prepare and fold the ballot or bal- 
lots he may cast at such election, and with 
the certificate or authority, authenticated as 
aforesaid, shall convey or transmit the same, 
by mail or otherwise, to the elector hereby 
empowered to deliver the said ballot to the 
inspectors of election in said election dis- 
trict. 

§4. Such elector shall deliver the ballot so 
received, to the inspector of election, on the 
day of such election, and between the open- 
mg and closing of the polls thereof, and the 
inspector shall deposit the same in the ballot 
box in the same manner as other ballots are 
delivered #(nd deposited, and the same shall 
be canvassed in the same manner and have 
the same effect as other votes cast at such 
election. 

*; .5. The said elector and freeholder, em- 
powered as aforesaid, shall, at the time of 
the delivery of the ballot to the inspectors, 
make and describe the following affidavit: 
"I, C. D., do solemnly swear that I am aa 
elector in election district number 
'town of 'county of ' and State 

of New York, that the ballot (or ballots) 
hereby presented and offered by me as the 
vote of is (or are) the identi- 

cal ballot (or ballots) received by me from 
the said ; that I have not exchanged, 

altered nor effaced the same in any manner, 
nor have tlie same been exchanged, altered 
or effaced to my knowledge or belief." 

S 6. Such affidavit shall be attached to the 
aforesaid instrument or certificate in writing, 
and sljall be delivered to the inspectors of 
election, by whom the same shall be kept and 
filed in the same manner and place as the 
poll lists of said election are required by 
law to be kept and filed. 

S7. Any inspector of election who shall 
refuse to deposit such vote in the ballot bos. 
or to count and canvass the same, and the 
elector and freeholder empowered to offer 
the ballot as aforesaid, who shall wilfully re- 
fuse or neglect so to do, shall be guilty of a 
misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, 
shall bo punished by a fine of not more than 
five hundred dollars, or by ^mprisonmeat in 
the county jail not exceeding one year, or by 
both such fine and imprisonment, in the dis- 
cretion of the court. 

§ 8. Every person attempting to vote or 
to deposit said vote, or to discharge any duty 



13 



enjoined by this act, who shall swear falsely 
or make and subscribe a false oath or affi- 
davit, shall be deemed guilty of willful and 
corrupt perjury, and, upon conviction there- 
of, shall be punished by imprisonment in the 
state prison for not less than two years, and 
shall forever bo disqualified from holding any 
otfice of profit or trust thereafter; and any 
pereon who shall make a false certificate or 
inetruraent in writing, provided for by sec- 
tion second of this act, or who shall make, 
take or sign a false or fictitious affidavit to 
be annexed to the same, shall be guilty of a 
misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, 
shall be punished by imprisonment in the 
county jail for not less than six menths. 

1 9. It shall be the duty of the secretary of 
state to prepare and to have printed the ne- 
cessary blanks and forms to carry out the 
provisions of this act, and to furnisli the 
same for the use of the jjersons so engaged 
in the military or naval servisa as aforesaid. 

§10. The said voters, in the service as 
aforesaid, shall be registered in the same 
uianner as other voters. 

§11. This act shall take effect imme- 
ds»t6ly. 



Tl»e Nevr T»rK Dcmocratle Leg^lsIatlTe 
.Iddress— An Imjtudent ImpoHtnre. 

fFrom the N. Y. Herald, Ind. Dem.] 
We publish this morning, for the inforraa- 
tjon of our readers, the address of the Demo- 
«ratic members of our late Legislature to 
iheir constituents. It is a remarkable docu- 
ment. Wo pronounce it an insolent appeal 
for public favor upon false pretences. We 
denounce it as the mo«t impudent and arro- 
gant production of unscrupulous old party 
hacks and spoilsmen that has ever emanated 
from that fruitful source of corruption, their 
headquarters at Albany. Wo consider it our 
duty to meet this brazenfaced imposture upon 
the threshold, and to hold it up, by the light 
of truth, to tlie public contempt and con- 
ciomnation. 

We first arraign this Democratic address 
S3 a base perversion of that prevailing lo}fal 
public sentiment of the State through which 
these Democritio signers wore elected to the 
Legislature. Tlioy would have us believe, 
from the whole tenor of this address, that 
the paramount issue of the day is not be- 
tween tho general government and the ro- 
llellion, but between the Democrat.^ and the 
Republicans of Now York ; that the great 
struggle in which we are involved is not for 
the life of the nation, but for ihe spoils; and 
that the restoration of tho spoils to the De- 
mocratic party i.t more important than the 
prosecution of the war. But v.hat are the 
plain facts of history regarding the Demo- 
cratic party? Utterly corrupted and demo- 



ralized by the spoils. It was broken up, dis- 
solved and scattered to tho four winds of 
heaven at the Charleston and Baltimore Con- 
ventions of 1800. The previously controlling 
elements of the party uniting in a grand con- 
spiracy, lighted the iires of the Southern re- 
bellion, while the Union elements of the old 
concern in tlie loyal Slates, uniting with the 
party of President Lincoln's administration, 
left hardly the shadow of an opposition party 
in the North. 

Nor did the Northern elections of last Oc- 
tober and November signify a resuscitation 
of the old Democratic party, or any such 
contemptible reaction of public opinion.^ 
They had a much deeper and broader signi- 
fication. Under tlie arguments of the Inde- 
pendent conservative public press, these elec- 
tions were so many warnings from the peo- 
ple to the administration against tho contin- 
uation of those follies, blunders, imbecilities, 
corruptions and disasters which, down to 
last autumn had marked the conduct of the 
war. Seizing upon these general movements 
of public opinion,' the spoilsmen, ragmen, 
bagmen and sordid hucksters of tho defunct 
Democratic party rushed in, and, making; 
their paltry bargains here and there for ofli- 
ccrs and plunder, assumed to speak the ver- 
dict of the people. Thus these miserable 
Democratic imposters, inafialed with the de- 
lusive idea that the day had come to play a 
bolder game, proceeded In the Indiana and 
Illinois Legislatures, and to some extent in 
New Jersey and elsewhere, to their move- 
ments for peace with Jelf. Davis and his 
rebellious confederates, even to the extent 
of bloody riots and civil war in the loyal 
States. 

There was something of this violent revo- 
lutionary spirit betrayed by the strikers of 
Tammany and Mozart Hall in the late con- 
test for the Speaker at Albany, and we know 
not what would have followed but for there- 
straining influence of wiser men in tho legis- 
lative councils of tho party. .'Vt all events, 
the foolish excesses of the noisy Democrats, 
of the copperhead faction, East and West, 
during the last winter, resulted in another 
popular reaction in the late Now Hampshire, 
Rhode Island, Connecticut and Western elec- 
tions. In the single case of Seymour, of Con- 
necticut, it 18 thus made manifest that his 
copperhead peace platform is as odious to the 
people s.ti the stupid war programme of the 
abolition faction. And yet the fbreraost and 
grievous offence complained of in this Alba- 
ny Democratic Legislative address is that 
"one of the members from Kings county, 
elected as a Democrat, was induced to aban- 
don his party and accept the Speakership of 
the House at the hands of his opponents, un- 
der circumstances involving a gross betrayal 
of party faith. We may boldly say, however, 



i 



14 




that if this Democratic address embodies the | 
"party faith," Mr. Callicot did well to betray I 
and abandon it, and ought to be honored for 
it by his constituents. 

With a specification or two indicating tlie 
revolutionary spirit of this address we shall 
drop the disagreeable subject. These Demo- 
cratic patriots declare that the "subordina- 
tion of the rights and interests of the State 
to the scbemcs of the consolidationists at 
Washington was evinced (in the Legislature) 
not less painfully in the reluctance to provide 
for the military defence of the State, and the 
refusal to perfect tlio organization of the 
militia, wlJilo the Federal Cxovernment at the 
same time, proposes to substitute a forced 
conscription for the old reliance of tlie repub- 
lic—a citizen militia and a volunteer army." 
And again : it is made a matter of protest 
that the Federal Government proposes to ab- 
sorb the functions of the States, " and to or- 
ganize an army by forced conscription, plac- 
ing money above life, and allowing those 
owing allegiance to the government to escape 
sevice upon the payment'of a pecuniary con- 
sideration." But have not our volunteer ele- 
ments been so largely drawn upon that tliey 
can no longer supply the needed reinforce 
ments to our army? How, then, are we 
to meet to tlie sweeping conscription of the 
rebellion without a conscription? And what 
are State rights worth if wo permit the Gen- 
eral Government to be destryod? The plead- 
ings of this address, upon these points, are 
the identical arguments of Davis and his 
confederates against the "unconstitutional 
war measures of the Lincoln despotism." — • 
We prefer to be guided by the popular voice 
of the loyal States, as indicated in their late 
elections, touching all these war measures of 
the last session of Congress. 

But the patriotic signers of this address are 
afraid that the powers that be "will under- 
take the accomplishment of a peace upon the 
basis of a. permanent separation of the 
titates." We know that Greely has recom- 
mended something of the sort should we 
meet with no great military successes by the 
1st of May but nobody supposes that these 
Union peace democrats whose first object is 
to overthrow the existing administration, 
would accomplish anything better. Finally, 
however, the signers of this model address 
promise their support to the administration; 
but it is so oarelully qualilied that we can 
hardly rely upon it any more tliau upon the 
oath of allegiance by a democratic citizen of 
Mississippi with a Union gunboat at anchor 
nei'r his pile of cotton bales. In a word, the in- 
sidious teachings of this democratic address 
are calculated to stir up discussions and di- 
isions among tlie loyal States, acts of resi.s- 
ce to the conscription and to other meas- 
s of Congress intended to strtingtheu our 



army and navy, and to bring the war to a 
successful issue. It is an address which has 
so much to say against the administration, 
and so little, and in suoh low tone, against 
the rebelli(m, as to lead to the impres.sion a- 
mong weak minds that it would be better to 
make war against Lincoln and his retainers 
than to continue the war against Davis and 
his armed confederates. 

The people of New York will reje«t with 
scorn and indignation all such revoluti.onary 
instructioHs. They know, as the people of 
all the States, North and South, know, that 
this question of peace can now only be set- 
tled in the tented field. They know that 
there can now be only two parties in the 
loyal States — the party supporting the g»v- 
crnment and the War and the party .opposing 
them ; that all other parties amount to noti- 
ing. They know that there is no intermei- 
diato half way house of rest for scheming 
politicians, but that the issue, in the strong 
and expressive language of the eloquent Miss 
Dickinson is "harmony and Heaven or insur- 
rection and Hell." Let our democratic pipe- 
layers shape their course accordingly, and 
beware of the first easy lesson to treason of 
this aforesaid democratic legislative add^'ess. 



Extract of Speccli of Hon. D. S. Klck- 
i»fia»Bi, ilclivertf'd at the srreat I'ltioii Mass 
imminj;', ill Albany, M'l'doesdayevciiiiig, 

May ao, i>»o:). 

I hold to the Democracy of Gen. Jackson tha- 
the " Union must and shall be preserved," [ap- 
plause,] and not to the copperhead Democracy, 
thatwe must stop the war ahd allow rebellion to 
dictate terms ot peace. I would even go with 
copperheads if they would go to put down the 
rebellion instead of apologizing for it. This is the 
grouud I took in the beginning, and is the ground 
I shall maintain to the end. I have rande many 
speeches enforcing these ideas, which have been 
extensively published, and made the subject of 
comment, some in rebeldom and some in Europe, 
but I am happy to say that none of thcra have 
been approved by copperheads or rebel journals 
here, [renewed applause,] or pirate fitting, rebel 
sy mp.ithizing journals in Kurope. I repeat, names 
are not things, nor things names. A rebel against 
the Government, whether in Charleston or Al- 
bany, — whether he makes war openly or secretly — 
whether with arms in his hands or secret whis- 
pers on his tongue, is equally a traitor to his 
Government. [Cheers.] Convicts in our pifcons 
are clad in a peculiar costume, and trained lud 
dieted in a peculiar manner; but itis not the sen- 
tence of the court, the walls of the prison, the 
striped jacket, the nntsh and molasses, nor the 
lock-step that makes the villain. It is the ?ieart, 
whether in broadcloth or beaver— whether inside 
or outside of prison walls. Those wlio syropa- 
lliize with rebellion in th.-; loyal States seem not to 
have been Mattered with much recent success. 
Toombs boasted some years since that ho would 
■CiUl the roll of his slaves in Massachut etts. That 
being inconvenient, .Jeff. Davis called his, a few 
days tince, in Connecticut [laughter] but the 
niiml>er was iusQliicient to satisfy the demand, 
and the number is d.-iily growing less. 



15 



3at the copperhead politicians, like their con- 
fiderate military friends, are n\X)ut to make a 
change of base. [Renewed laughter.] Liberal 
propositions of peace are to be suspended for a 
season to make way for free speech ! They tell 
ns they are Union men and !ire for free speech. 
They have been for peace ami for settling this 
terrible war, while they knttw the rebel leaders 
will not lay down their arms until their indepen- 
dence, as they term it, is acknowledged and the 
Union dissolved ! They declare they are for the 
reconstruction of the Union by peacelul means; 
yet they know that if wo lay down our arms and 
close this war and patch up a peace, we are at the 
mercy of the most hellish depolism on earth. 
Bat finding that this old idea is pretty mnch 
plaj'ed out, and that they must have a new one, 
they want something that will draw. [ Appl.iusc ] 
You will not hear any more about "lincrul pro- 
positions of peace " iaaloug while. Now, it is 
all " free speech ! " A noisy, blurting braggart 
and gassy traitor named ViUmdam [raiars of laugh- 
ter and applause] or Vallandighaui, late a mem- 
ber of Congress from Ohio, who has offensively 
opposed the war and justilied the rebellion from 
nie beginning — who li.is been openly claimed by 
the rebels as their friend — who strenuously op- 
posed supplies tor the war — who was driimed out 
of a camp of volunteers in his own state [applause 
— " Good for him — he ought to be hung "] — who, 
in his last race for Congressional honors, was al- 
lowed to remain at home t>y the loyal people ot 
his district — who resides near the borders of Ken- 
tucky — has been arrested liy Gen. Burnfide, in 
whose military department he is; [" good "] and 
the moment be is arrested for some alleged oUence 
in that Military Department — we don't know for 
what, and his admirers here don't know for what 
— b^it by consent, they set up a howl from Rich- 
mond to Canada in behalf of "free speech!" 
Poor Vallandigham ! arrested in the night time, 
and at his own house! as though he ought to have 
been arrested in somebody 's else. [Laughter and 
applause.] He has been tried by court martial — 
he had the assistance ot counsel aud the atten- 
dance of witnesses in his behalf. The evidence 
has not been published, nor do we know what it 
was. It is said he was sentenced by the court to 
imprisonment in Fort Warren, but there is no 
authority for this declaration. No nation can 
exist in time of war without the war power. You 
can't make a woman's school of a great war. 
[Renewed laughter.] It does not proceed accord- 
ing to statute or the code ! There are great prin- 
ciples which civilization has estaliiished lor their 
guidance between civilized nations and peoples, 
but martial law is bounded only by discretion of 
the Commander-in-Chief. It is from the nature 
of the case despotic, lor war is little else. 

Liberty of speech is one thing. Liberty of trea- 
son is another. The liberty of speech is sacred; 
but this does not include the right to act as a spy 
and convey intelligence to the enemy, which may 
destroy thou;-ariUs of the lives of our soldiers — 
endanger our army and jeopard the existence ot 
Government. [Applause.] Swords and knives 
are free ; but this gives no one the right to com- 
mit murder. Firearms are free, aud exempt from 
seizure on execution, and yet no one has a right 
to discharge them at his neighbor. Fire is free; 
but the one who should employ it to destroy the 
dwelling of his neighbor, would be the subject of 
an " arbitrary arrest"— in his " own house," if he 
should be found there — "iu the presence of his 
wife and children," if he had them. And these 
" arbitrary arreats" iu crimin.il law are of daily 
occurrence, and in martial law of not unfrequent 
occurrence in all wars, — especially such a war of 
rebellion as this, with spies and traitors hatching 



treason and aiding rebellion all along the border. 
Any lawyer who c.innot discriminate between 
civil law and martial law should be treated for 
simplicitv on the brain. [Shouts of applause and 
laughter!] The functions of martial law and the 
authority upon which it rests, was freely stated 
by me last Fall in a speech made at the Cooper 
Institute. It is a dangerous power, but its absence 
would be more dangerous. It is liable to abuse, 
but no war can be conducted without it— espe- 
cially such a war as this. Whether it was judi- 
ciously exercised in this case, and whether the 
paltry fellow was worth arresting, I do not know, 
and do not, for all present purposes, care. All 
we can inquire of is, does the power exist, and if 
it does, was it exercised in good faith ? If it was, 
even though Gen. Biirnside was mistaken, he is 
to be encouraged for his watchfulness and com- 
mended for his vigilance. [Applause.] Two 
great and hasty and nuisy meetings have been 
held, one in New York, at which Captain Kyn- 
ders and others spoke, and even the late Thomas 
H.Seymour, of Connecticut, preached, [laughter], 
and one at this Capitol, where his Excellency 
Governor Seymour administered upon the wrongs 
of Vall.'.ndigham by letter. The Governor says 
this arrest is full of danger to our homes.— 
Who is in danger in his home, pray tell ? No 
one, unless he has done something to put himself 
in d.anger. The pious thief and burglar, Gordon, 
of Brooklyn, who attended conferences and 
prayer meeting with the young ladies, discovered' 
where they kept their jewelry, and then entered 
their houses and robbed them by night, was a 
long time in danger in his home [roars of laugh- 
ter], and by and'by the cruel police went in large 
numriers and with their murderous clubs, and in 
the night time, too, and " artjitrarily arrested" 
him and put him in prison, and the Court sent 
him to State prisoQ for twenty years. All for 
stealing a few trinkets. Yet Gov. Seymour says 
nothing. Had he connived with rebellion for the 
overthrow of the only great free Government on 
earth, and he had been detected and arrested, it 
would have been " arbitrary." But it interfered 
with the " freedom of speech." How ? Who has 
objected to the freest possible di?cussion. Free- 
dom of speech does not confer the right to go be 
fore an enemy and stimulate mutiny and disobe- 
dience and recommend desertion. It does not 
justify anything which, in a time of war, is calcu- 
lated and intended to weaken the military arm of 
the Government. The Governor complains that 
the Governors of some of the Western States 
have sunk into insignificance. It is certainly 
time to be on the lookout. I hope whatever may 
become of other States, New York may not hnd 
herself in the same pitiful categoiy. [Laughter.] 
It is cert:iinly a humiliating position for the first 
State of the Union, when the scales of our being 
as a nation are vibrating, — when our children are 
dying by thousands in defence of the Union, — to 
see the Chief Magistrate turn from contemplating 
the picture with anxious solicitude, to denounce 
the Government and encourage the rebellion, bo- 
cause a ranting, foamine, frothing, gasconading 
traitor [cries of "hang him, hang him"] has been 
chargeu with an oHeuce cognizable by martial 
law, and has been arsested, and after a full and 
fair trial, convicted. This is the species of sup- 
port which Gov. Seymour, and those who are 
with him from the beginning of the war, have 
given to the Administration, aud this he calls a 
"generous" one! They now propose to "pause," 
as he tells us; and if they will but " pause" in their 
assaults upon the Administration — hi their pro- 
claimed sympathy with traitors, aud la their en- 
couragement to rebellion — they will confer a 
fixvor upou the present Siud coming gener.itions. 



i 



16 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



The people cry "panse," bnt it is to those en- i laughter 013 709 204 9^ 

saged in assaults upon the Administration, not to | Now is tL _ '^ 

NnT r'l.'i"'' ''!'."''°^ "f.^i" '"T' ^' "'^ '"«*"''- I J***" D^mocrkt.Tor'ev'ei^Ke^nbM^n forevv 
wh.- ^ „ t^/"^ P""""' ''"' *^y ''■■y «» "^°^e ! man, who is an honest man, toS in m^ntaiL 
7^U A^Zfer^ZT.T. '°'* comfort to the | ing the Government and pittinTdown toe X- 
reoeis. ine soldiers are among us here, and they llion. fVoice : " How'r vou eoine to nut it 
CTy pause," hut >t is that you " pause" in stimu- down ? " Put it down a/sa^il lut down ^U 
. lat.ng the rebellion They have periled their lives ' huijh it ri<rht do wn through Applau^l ^^• 
m defence of the Government. With heads un- Bat, feTlow-citizens the thme wiU all cow- 
(»vered and with bosoms bared, they have met I right by and by The returaed To dier -an,i 
?e?d'3 they i?: ^^^Z "P"" '}"' '■^"'^- ' ^^"^ "« '" »"' P^''*' of th!s"mTs''o/ peopf .'-wi 
o^ar^ng this^rehellion t1,« ^.l? J/i," '"".t"'- i '""^ ^"""^ """'■ ''tories,and wll tell copperhead- 
s' '^an^e" f^ vi^^;,„ 1 "".'l""' """'I'' 1 "" ^"^ "'"'■^ advantage there is to be g^ned by 
^;,J^^' ^ " ^^° ''^ sympathizmg with shapiag their course for political purposes and 
SidlS insi tu"Jl^fs •"■^hTr' ■ '° '^' Government I giving^the country the goV- What we want ^ 
wase in vour r-riVlr^L .h' ^'^ ^k° 'J" ^""Z^- '? concentrate public opinion-we want to bring 
KbS.nZ;n If. '•,'''^\""'*°'^ and son ; the whole force and power of the Governmon- 
SiereS The' SrP.rir?"""^.^'^"' '"'* to ! where it can rest on this rebellion; audit must 
-Jur~nt to rebJk^n «l?'"lf''T '" l"^' '"Z : "? T«- "^^^ ">^''« ""«' l^« t"™ ''""» »e faces 
S?me™^ not .ml Jnn „f M% J^^cP'^if "?t. I of all copperheads. One side or the other of thi., 
mi^^so^' Th^r. ,f^ „M "''' ^t^^ ''""'-r ^'"J'',; ■ ^°'^'"<'° ■""«' "« '•■'ken. One is the side of truth, 
fadonfthfl lL„n „^*- ,.'!"i' "^"^f "^ "pause." : fair dealing, honesty in the support of the Gov- 
erno^and c^ " ;^n.f" n ■'■T'll?'-^' '^!,^^- ' ''™""'"" "^« "'^^^ '^ '"e side"^ of falsehood and 
fleen in dfilfh ^-rl^L .P^^v.^T^^'" '??'* '™' ' l^'^Wing and denunciation of the Government. 
dS muM thev^n.fJ-'l.'"?'.* "'l ''"'""„*'' ^'be rath of falsehood loads to the rebel ranks, 
ft^wmild sw7nnPh„ • ""''i ^/-^ F''"'^ i ^""l '" o^Pi-assions of sympathy and condolence 
come to rifiln/nl^I^ marched us here-we with and for traitors. Let each man take his posi- 
^nTclte the hnnnv ^^T^^ Aag-we come to ! tion. I have taken mine on the side of truth! jus- 
m-^ervf the hn,^T„5. """^ "at'on-we come to , Uce and the Government. I know what this Gov- 
SrhTntr ly raemones that cluster around ; ernmont and these institutions have done for tha 
?a^-eXt hone «nH"» """^ '""e^/o^Sl"! yo" ■ gi-eat cause of Freedom, and knowledge of set 
fill- "LnsJ^" and encouragement to the rebel- ience. I intend to maintain my position. Let 
"Dame "When von Jf H "■■'*• , ^'''' ^ ?7 *'^'° ""^"P' «o ''"^•« "e from it. Let them 
-naS-'-sTt fvL^, 1 w,,^' ^°"'',, ^^^^^ '=T° '^''1' ^" ">^ P^^'-'y machinery and party 
wSri^ at^onr « Jf Wh. "' there-a skeleton ; whips. " Lay on Macduff, and d-d be he whf. 
JyiJ^ J ^"-^ When yon proceed to yonr lirst cries hold! enough." f Renewed applause 1 
hon??t ™rS "TaL""'',,'' '"7% ^'^ '"? ^'?*' -^bolitionistshave beeifortrvears'endoavi 
7v„iL^ « ^ M l""'^' '^'^ P"'® '^*'^<' and ; oring to destroy Slavery, but Jeff Davis by mak- 
halSven"fhP ^J:','!,"™"' '" ""= ^««^1 of aid you | ing Sud waging war upon the Govemiient, has 
have given the rebels m arms against the govern- ' destroyed it in two years. [" Bully for you " 
SeStifno^hev.'^r^h^r, r^ P^^r*""^ ^J J^^^^- •, He has buried itpait resurrection, and alfth^ 
whoUi^t n H f,' J^f- "^ ."'«-'''«°- For men \ people cry Amen I I never agreed with the Abo 
WHO assist in th s rebelli.m, if not executed and ■ litionists. They abused me and I abused them 
X^lndtelfw'lll'foHt'?' "^"P r^ '°"', "^ ' [Langh.er.T I^ettle" my accounts il^^ along. 
J» rorei nh Ji i?i "" "^ Character for misu- and I don't know that onr disagreement is any 
»er. I urcat cheering. . rftonn ^h-^ .!,<.» oi — u „. j ?,,_■. j _.. .t' 



V 



ser. [Great cheering.] 

Men are mistaken id supposing that they can 
form parties on the issues of our country's fate. 
The great popular mind sways to and fro ; it may 
be diverted from the purpose, but it will be ever 
constant and true in upholding the Government. 
Who believes that this rebellion cau bo disposed 



reason why they should stand back and see the 
Government destroyed, and I know it Is no reo- 
son why I should. [Applause.] 

AVTiat I wish is no party advantage in this mat- 
ter: what I wish is to see my fellow-citizens, of 
all parties and all creeds, rise up to the importance 
of this question ; what I wish is to throttle ever]'- 
miserable politician who flies his party banner 

nhrtvrt that nF KJa n^,,^t- itl I, » ,t_ . t 1 



«f hi any other way except by the power ofthe I ^'""■able politician who flies his party banner 
sword ? I took the position in the bcinniug and i """^^ ""*' "'' ^'^ country, untU he shall cry 
take it at the end. All rebeldom can have peace „?k "*?' , L*^"^' °^ " "°°* " ^^^ applause.] 
when they lay down their arms. But there are .^^"at 1 wish is to see our brave soldiers sustainea 
men here who continually prate of their Democ- '"'he field. [Renewed applause and three cheers.] 
racy— great Democrats— they know all about De- ■ ^^at I wish is to see the loyal masses in the rebe/ 
mocracy. and to judge by ilieir actions they care i ^*''""^ strengthened and sustained ; what I wish is 
very little about auTtbing else. You recollect the ^ disloyal and bad men may be brought to cou- 
V,y said to his father, suppose we call our old ] d'gn puiiishment 

horses tail a leg, bow many legs would he have' ^ thank you, fellow-citizens, for this opportunity 
Fise said the father. Oh, no, said the tioy call- i *" address you. I came not prepared ; but this is 
ing the tail a leg would not make it a leg ikoars ' ■" ^^^'cct on v?hich I can talk, and will talk, when- 
of laughter.] Men may call thcmselvJs Demo- I ?^'\r I get an opportunity. [Applause.] I hope 
crats, kut it does not make them Democrats. The 
first great principle of Democracy is, according 
to Jackson, "the Union must and shall be pre- 
served," [applause,] and there is where I stand 
^sj^night— It must be preserved, no matter from 
'^at quarter the assaults may come. It must be 
^-Merved against all its enemies. [Renewed ap- 
^se.] Why, sir, pretended leaders of Demo- 

■ as we now have would have swamped An- 

^Jackson ia liis first quarter. [Roars of 



ever I get an opportunity. [Applause.] 
to live to see this country vindicated. I believe 
I shall live to see the clouds driven from the uky, 
and all the stars in onr brij^ht escutcheon left, and 
the blessings of free government perpetuated. 
"Lo! a cloud's aboQt to vanish 
Flvm the day ; 
Ar.d a brazen virrong to cnmible 
Into clay. 
Lo t tho I jxbfs flbont to cohQUOr, 

Clila il tilk Wat 1 
" Men of thouKht and men ot uotioo, 
Clkab tub way I*' 



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